2138. The Shank-Bone Sermon; Or, True Believers And Their Helpers

No. 2138-36:193. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, March
23, 1890, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle,
Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, April 13, 1890.

Who, when he was come, helped much those who had believed through
grace.{Ac 18:27}

1.
Apollos is not Paul, and Paul is not Apollos. To blend the two in one
would be to spoil each one of the two without producing a good third.
It is a great mercy that we have Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, and
other varieties of preachers; for not only is variety charming, but
it is necessary. It is not everyone who can be profited by Paul; for
it requires a great deal of fixed attention to follow him, and many
hearers cannot concentrate their thoughts for long. It is not
everyone who can be profited by Apollos, for fine speech is thrown
away on simple souls. It is written, “Then the lambs shall feed after
their manner”; and assuredly each one of them has a particular manner
of feeding. Some of God’s people are edified by one minister, and
some by another: it is not mere whim, but it arises out of
conformation of character, and habit of mind. Let Paul be Paul, and
edify the Pauline class; and let Apollos be Apollos, and instruct
those of his own kind. For my part, I would try to profit by either
Paul, Apollos, Cephas, John, or James; but, alas! I do not know where
to go to hear them. I am happy in hoping that their successors are
still with us, each one with his particular style of things. I am not
going to compare them with each other; but I would commend each one,
and thank God, by whose grace he is what he is. It would be a very
bad day’s work, if we could do it, to reduce Paul to Apollos, or to
bring Apollos to the style of Paul. In the body there are different
members, and all members do not have the same office; and in the
church of God there are different ministries, and all ministries do
not work in the same way, though they all work towards the very same
end. If, my dear friend, God gives you grace to bring sinners to
Christ, and to plant churches, be thankful that you can imitate Paul;
and if you cannot do that, but can help those who are already
converted, be thankful for such a gift, and imitate Apollos. Do not
let the man who plants envy the man who waters; and do not let the
man who waters boast over the man who simply plants and goes his way;
for Paul has his place, and is honoured by his Master as a planter,
and Apollos has his place, and shall not lack his reward as a waterer.

2.
You see that the Holy Spirit has been pleased, by the pen of Luke, to
give to Paul’s travels and labours a very large proportion of the
Book of the Acts of the Apostles; this passage from the twenty-fourth
to the twenty-eighth verse is an episode — a corner marked off to be a
record of Apollos. What Apollos did afterwards we do not know. He may
have been a very great evangelist; he certainly was an extremely
useful brother. But, dear friends, I find no complaint from Apollos,
because, being mentioned in the sacred despatches, he has so small a
place allotted to him. He does not sulk because he has only four or
five verses, while Paul is described at great length. If you and I
should work for Christ, and never be mentioned in the records of
earth at all, let us not be sorry: there is most peace to those who
are least talked about. God, who is a Sovereign, dispenses
according to his will, and it may be that one working brother will
have all his story told, and his life will make a useful biography,
instructing and stimulating many for generations. So be it. Another
brother, equally earnest and fervent, may never have his life
written: there may only remain in the traditions of the church one or
two anecdotes about him, helpful and good; but do not let him mind
his obscurity, his real usefulness may be none the less. Our record
is on high. If the chronicles of earth are faulty, the registers of
heaven are perfect. Many a man who has been forgotten here shall be
remembered there; and I know that in heaven it will give no saint the
least trouble that he was not honoured among men. What if no monument
was set up, yet all true work is immortal. The diligent workman will
be perfectly satisfied when his Master says to him, “Well done, good
and faithful servant.” The echo of those words shall be heaven to
him. Sweeter than all the harps of angels shall be the voice of his
Lord’s approval. Go on, Apollos! Work on, though there is little said
about you, and do not envy Paul, with whose name the halls of the
church are ringing. He did not seek himself any more than you did,
and his contentment in the published record lies only in the fact
that it honours his Lord.

3.
But now, to come close to the text, I want you to notice these
words — “When he was come, he helped much those who had believed through
grace.” Apollos, following Paul at Corinth, did useful service by
confirming those who had already believed in the Lord Jesus. Our
first point is — true believers have believed through grace;
secondly, such believers need help; and, thirdly, it is a
worthy work in which to engage — to help those who have believed
through grace. May the Holy Spirit use many of us in this hallowed
service! May we ourselves be helped through grace at this time!

4.I. First, then, THOSE WHO HAVE TRULY BELIEVED HAVE BELIEVED
THROUGH GRACE.

5.
I suppose Luke felt it necessary to insert those words, “through
grace.” No one in his day doubted the fact that salvation is
accomplished in men by the grace of God; but the Holy Spirit foresaw
that many, in later days, would conceal or obscure this truth, and
therefore he moved the evangelist to note it very plainly. We have it
under hand and seal from the Holy Spirit that those who believed in
the Lord Jesus believed through grace. Surely, grace is to the
forefront in all good things. And here let me say, it is grace that
gives us the gospel which we believe.

Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.

6.
It was grace that chose the people whom God would save, and gave them
over to the Lord Jesus. It was grace that gave Jesus Christ to stand
in their room, and place, and stead, and bear for them what was due
to the justice of God on account of their sin. It was grace which led
the Saviour to undertake and carry through the work of substitution.
Grace wrote the first letter of the gospel: grace will write the last
letter of it. Salvation is all of grace from first to last. I wish
that all preachers and hearers knew the meaning of that word “grace,”
and did not confuse it and mix it up with human endeavours and
creature merits; for, indeed, “it is not by him who wills, nor by him
who runs, but by God who shows mercy.” If it is by grace, it is no
more by works, otherwise grace is no more grace; and if it is by
works, it is not by grace, otherwise work is no more work. “By grace
you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God.” Grace means free, undeserved favour; and since it comes
from God to us, it is sovereign grace which is moved only by the good
pleasure of Jehovah’s will. Grace is the active movement of the
divine will to produce the results which have been graciously
determined. Grace makes a distinction between man and man, and it
must have all the glory for what it does. Grace is exercised
according to the will of God, and not according to the will of man,
for the Lord has said it — “I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
Grace sat in the council-chamber of eternity and devised the scheme
of mercy, the plan of redemption, the method of peace through the
blood, the whole economy of salvation by grace through faith in
Christ Jesus.

7.
I say, then, that while grace gives us the gospel to believe, grace
also gives us to believe the gospel. We are personally to believe
the gospel, and so only by this can we be saved. But if I came before
you tonight, and had nothing further to say than “Believe the gospel,
and you shall be saved,” the message would add to your solemn
responsibility, and yet it would not save you; for you would not
believe, but would continue in your sins. Man left to himself is an
unbeliever, and he will remain an unbeliever. To meet the deep
depravity of our nature, and its settled unbelief, he who gave the
gospel to be believed, also gives the faith that believes the
gospel. This is a wonder of grace; but then in the realm of grace
everything is wonderful. We are so set on mischief, so proud, so
conceited, so unbelieving, that we never do come to receive the
gospel, except through the operation of the grace of God on our
consciences and wills. The faith which comes to God first came from
God. I remember, when I believed in Christ, and took him to be my
trust, and was saved: I believed, and by this I entered into life and
peace. It was not until some time after that I saw the reason why I
had believed. I said to myself, “How is it that I have believed in
Christ, while others who have attended the same gospel ministry, and
have enjoyed the same advantages, have not believed in him?” The
enquiry was not, “Why did they refuse to believe?” I saw at once
that their unbelief was their own fault and folly, and that the blame
must be laid at their door, for they wilfully refused the Saviour;
but this was not the question: I was not judging them, but I was
examining myself, and enquiring why I had believed in the Lord Jesus.
I saw that if I had believed, it was not to be set down to my
personal credit. I could not take to myself any honour because of it.
My believing, when they did not believe, did not spring from any
betterment of nature on my part. God forbid that I should dream of
such a thing! It did not spring from any natural excellence of my
will. There was a submissive will in me; but something from above
made that will submissive, and that something lay behind everything.
Then I understood that it was God’s grace that had made me to differ;
and I gave to God, then and there, the glory for my faith, and the
credit for my choice of Christ. I have never met any Christian man,
whatever his doctrinal views, who has not been willing to give to God
the glory for his conversion. He has ascribed it to the working of
the Holy Spirit, and not to himself; and he has joined with me in
praising God for it. Though the brother may object to the doctrine of
distinguishing grace in the gross, yet, in his own case in
particular, he has been willing to confess that not only did grace
give him a gospel to believe, but grace gave him to believe the
gospel. We come; but God draws. We come to God because he draws
us. We came to believe in Christ because his Spirit enlightened and
persuaded us, and brought us into the happy state of salvation by
faith in Christ.

8.
Furthermore, I wish to add that such believing is a sure evidence
of grace. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your
heart, you have the grace of God in you. There is no better proof of
it than this. Where there is faith there is grace: the one is the
inseparable fruit of the other. “He who believes in him has
everlasting life.” “He who believes in him is not condemned.” These
are not sentences of mine. I am quoting Holy Scripture to you; and
the Scripture cannot be broken. “Therefore being justified by faith,
we have peace with God.” It is the believing that brings us into this
condition of peace with God. I do not care what works you shall bring
me, no matter how many they are; if you do not bring faith with you,
which is the chief of all works, you have brought me nothing. If you
believe in Jesus Christ, whom God has sent, you have the one sure and
certain evidence of grace. If you believe in Christ alone, and are
resting your salvation on his finished righteousness, you have the
clearest evidence that the grace of God is in your heart. Will you
not search and see whether you have real faith in the Lord Jesus?
Make sure work on this point. If you do not believe, you are
condemned already.

9.
And what is more, if you believe through grace, that grace which
made you believe is the best guarantee that you shall keep on
believing. Faith which is born of self will die of self; but what
is the child of grace will live for ever. If you have begun to
believe by yourself you will stop by yourself; but if God’s grace
began your believing, God’s grace will continue your believing, and
you will remain in this faith where you stand even to the end. This
gives me great comfort whenever I think of it; for I desire certainty
for days to come. If the faith by which I have laid hold on Christ to
be my Saviour is altogether created in me by the Holy Spirit, through
grace, then I defy the devil to take away what he never gave, or to
crush what Jehovah himself created in me. I defy my free will to
fling away what it never brought to me. What God has given, created,
introduced, and established in the heart he will maintain there.
“Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be
rooted up”; but what he has planted no one shall root up; for it is
written, “I the Lord keep it; I will water it every moment: lest
anyone harms it, I will keep it night and day.”

10.
The men of Corinth to whom Apollos came had believed through
grace. Beloved, there is a sweet ring about this description. They
“had believed,” and their faith secured their souls; but they “had
believed through grace,” and that secured their faith. “Through
grace” is the hall-mark on the precious metal of believing. There
is no such thing as true believing where grace is not present. We
believe: it is an act of our own mind. But we believe through grace;
it is the result of God’s grace working on our mind. We both will and
do, because God works in us to will and to do. We believe, because
the Holy Spirit leads us to trust in the Lord Jesus. So much on the
first point. May grace work in us true believing! Oh my hearers, how
I wish that you were all such believers!

11.II. Now for the second consideration. SUCH BELIEVERS NEED HELP. I
know they do, because we are told in the text that Apollos “helped
much those who had believed through grace”; and his work was not a
superfluous one, or it would not have been mentioned here with
commendation. In what respects do those who have grace need help? In
what ways can true believers be helped?

12.
Many believers need help in further instruction. Young Christians
cannot be supposed to know much when they first come to Christ; but
they come to be disciples, that is to say, learners. They know the
three R’s — Ruin, Redemption, and Regeneration; and that is by no means
a small part of spiritual education. But they do not know even these
elementary truths so fully as they might know them, and even about
these things they will be all the better for more teaching. Often
they need someone to open up passages of Scripture, to expound to
them the analogy of faith, and to help them to compare spiritual
things with spiritual. Beloved, you may be a great help to new
converts if you will teach them “the way of God more perfectly.” Oh,
that ministries were more instructive! Alas, it seems often as if the
preacher skimmed the surface, and did not care to enter into the
treasure-house of doctrine, and open up the deep things of God. If
public ministry falls short, private Christians must try to make up
for it. We want the people instructed, for ignorance is the mother of
superstition and scepticism. The uninstructed are easily carried away
with novelties and delusions. Those who are established in the faith,
and know what they believe, generally stand firm. Had the teaching
from the pulpit been more clear and decisive during the past twenty
years we would not now be living in an age of uncertainty.

13.
Many who have believed through grace also need help by way of
consolation. You would be astonished if you knew the large number
of believers in Christ who are tempted to doubt, despondency, and
distress of mind. In the present congregation there are a number of
people depressed in spirit, who can hardly look up, who will judge,
when I am speaking, that I am referring to them; and I must confess
that I am thinking of them, and do very often think about them, and
long to see them come out from their present gloom. It is a great joy
to me if I can help them at all by describing my own experience of
depression and elation. These bruised and broken ones need binding
up. Brothers, if you are like Barnabas, “sons of consolation,” do not
be slack in your blessed service! Oh you spiritual men, trained in
the school of sorrow, use your best endeavours to minister to
diseased minds. Pour in the oil and wine of the gospel wherever there
is a wound gaping and bleeding. A word fitly spoken, a promise
seasonably quoted, may help much those who have believed through
grace.

14.
Apollos helped them much, also, by defending them against
opponents. We find that “he mightily convinced the Jews”; and in
doing this he screened believing Gentiles from many a rude assault.
He disputed with all his might, and with great fervour of spirit,
against those who tried to subvert the faith of the Christians.
Nowadays the Christian needs to go fully armoured, for arrows fly as
thick as sleet in a storm. Objections are always being raised; doubts
are always being insinuated. It is hard for a man to keep his feet
amid the present torrents of unbelief that sweep down our streets.
You who can stand firm should help those who cannot. You who are
strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak in the matter of
doubt. Give tremblers a word to confirm them in “the faith once
delivered to the saints.” Older Christians can do much in this
direction by mentioning their own experience of the certainty of
divine truth. Tell the young people how God has helped you in the day
of trial. Tell them how he has answered your prayers. Tell them what
joy and peace you have had in dark times by trusting in God. Please
tell them the way by which the Lord has led you; and when you do this
they will not be so likely to be staggered and cast down by every
critic who may assault them. “He helped much those who had believed
through grace.” Elderly Christians can do very much of this by
baffling the adversary with those blessed facts of their own lives,
which are stubborn things even to sceptics.

15.
And we can also help those who have believed through grace by
giving them a word of direction. They frequently do not know what
to do. They come to the end of their wits and their knowledge; and
then the Christian who, by reason of use, has had his senses
exercised, may be of great service to the bewildered. We are
commissioned by the Lord to be eyes to the blind, and feet to the
lame, and guides to wanderers. It is the lot of some of us to be
employed by the King to conduct trains of pilgrims to the celestial
city; and very often we have to put ourselves in front of the women
and the children to fight with Giant Grim or Giant Despair. For their
sakes we enter the battle with lions, dragons, and other monsters.
The journey of the weaker ones to heaven is a personally-conducted
tour, and the Lord of the way employs us to be their guardians. All
who have spiritual strength should carry out the commission which is
implied in the very possession of that strength. You should help the
weak, and give a brotherly word of advice to the inexperienced. Oh
beloved, do we lay ourselves out for this — those of us who have been
long the people of God — as we ought to do? Do you not think that there
is a tendency among many to despise the weak and leave them to
themselves? How are they to grow wiser and more instructed if they
have no better company than their own? Do I hear an older one say,
“Oh, that young lad, what does he know? What can he do towards my
edification?” This is a very selfish question; let it not be heard
among you. “I never got much out of the church,” one said to me; and
he was somewhat surprised when I replied, “I never joined the church
to get anything out of it.” “What did you join it for?” “Why, to do
all I could for all who are in it.” This wretched self-seeking
poisons everything it touches. A certain lady went out with a number
of Christian friends, and being very easily displeased, she was soon
complaining, and turning to a friend she asked him if he enjoyed
himself. “No,” he said, “I did not come here to enjoy myself, I
came here to enjoy other people.” There is a great deal in that. If
you live for yourself, your object is base and unsatisfactory. In
fact if you live for yourself, you will die; but if you will learn to
live to help the feeble, and guide the doubtful, and to be a
Great-Heart for King Jesus, you will live abundantly, for God will
bless you.

16.
Dear friends, the majority of Christians, when first converted,
need leaders. They need someone to show them the way, and to go
before them; I wish that many here present who have been taught by
God, if they do not become preachers and ministers, may,
nevertheless, by their conduct and conversation vie with Apollos in
this blessed work of helping much those who have believed through
grace. By word and by example may the Holy Spirit teach you how to be
convoys to the little ships which are now making the voyage of life.

17.III. So I come to the third observation, which is this: IT IS A
WORTHY WORK IN WHICH TO ENGAGE.

18.
Helping those who have believed through grace is a work worthy of the
highest talent and the greatest experience. I want to impress upon
many of my instructed brothers and sisters that they should engage in
it at once, and keep at it continually. We are going to have a great
number of converts in this place. We have been praying for them, and
we are sure to have them, for the Lord hears prayer, and blesses his
own truth. I want you to get ready to receive the new converts and
nurse them for Christ. Whenever children are expected, someone is
notified about it, and a skilled person is in readiness to cherish
the weaklings. God will not send his babes to a church that is not
prepared to nurse them; and I want to stir you up to be ready to help
much those who shall believe through grace. I claim this assistance
from you, and I feel sure that you will cheerfully render it, even as
Apollos so aided Paul.

19.
First, because you have been helped, I claim it. Apollos became a
helper because he himself had been helped. He began to preach, and he
preached all that he knew; but his knowledge was very defective. What
he said was good — very good; but it was not fully the gospel; for he
had only learned about John the Baptist, and had not yet been taught
the doctrine of Jesus. Apollos teaches very eloquently; but still
there is a lack about his teaching. He has not yet reached the full
chord; he does not sound out the blessed music of the gospel to
perfection. Aquila and Priscilla ask him into their tent warehouse,
and they say to him, “Dear friend, do you notice, you went just so
far, but you should have gone a little further. You spoke about the
Lamb of God; but you did not tell them that Jesus was the Lamb of
God, and that he had died to take away sin.” Apollos replied,
“Please, tell me all about it.” And when they further informed him
about the death, and the resurrection, and the ascension of the Lord
Jesus, and about the coming of the Holy Spirit, Apollos said, “Thank
you. Thank you. Now I have grand truths to preach, and my message
will be more full and gracious than it has been. I shall go out to
the synagogue tomorrow to tell them about the Messiah who has truly
come, and I shall speak with greater freedom concerning him.” Apollos
had been helped, and therefore Apollos was bound to help other
people. Do you not think, you Christian people, that you owe
something to the church of God as well as to the Christ of God? You
were converted; was it not by a pastor’s preaching, or by a teacher’s
instruction in the Sunday School, or by a book that had been written
by a Christian man? Will you not repay the church of God what you owe
to her instrumentality? If you have been helped as well as converted,
you are especially bound to lay yourself out to help others. When a
person who has bean very despondent, receives comfort, he should look
out for desponding spirits, and use his own experience as a cordial
to the fainting. I do not think that I ever feel so much at home in
any work as when I am trying to encourage a heart which is on the
verge of despair, for I have been in that plight myself. It is a
high honour to nurse our Lord’s wounded children. It is a great gift
to have learned by experience how to sympathize. “Ah!” I say to
them, “I have been where you are!” They look at me, and their eyes
say, “No, surely, you never felt as we do.” I therefore go further,
and say, “If you feel worse than I did, I pity you indeed; for I
could say with Job, ‘My soul chooses strangling rather than life.’ I
could readily enough have committed suicide, to escape from my misery
of spirit.” In talking to those who are in that wretched condition, I
find myself at home; he who has been in the dark dungeon knows the
way to the bread and the water. If you have passed through depression
of mind, and the Lord has appeared to your comfort, lay yourself out
to help others who are where you used to be. If you are in prison,
and you get out, do not enjoy your own liberty alone, but hurry to
set another captive free. Are your chains broken? Then be a
chain-breaker in the Lord’s name. A sailor, who had long been a
prisoner in France, gained his liberty. He went into Seven Dials,
bought a cage full of birds, and when he had paid for them, he opened
the cage, and let them all fly. People cried with wonder, “What did
you buy them for?” “Oh,” he said, “I bought them to let them fly. I
know what it is to be a prisoner myself, and I cannot bear that birds
should be shut up in a cage.” Go to those who are what you were — caged
birds — and let them fly by telling them about Jesus, and the ransom
price. Seek out poor, bound sinners, and proclaim freedom to them.
Proclaim liberty at the market crossing in the name of Christ.

20.
I speak to some here who have a measure of natural ability for this
work. Maybe you resemble Apollos, because Apollos was an eloquent
man. “Ah!” one says, “I am not eloquent.” I do not know that. There
may be a difference of opinion as to what eloquence is. Eloquence is
speaking out from the heart. I will tell you what I call eloquence in
a child: it is the whole child working himself up to gain his wish
and have his way. There is a pretty thing that the child wants. He is
very little, but he tries to speak about it, and does his best to
express his longings. He points to what he wants, and clutches at it,
and cries after it. Still he does not succeed, and then he works
himself up into an agony of desire. The boy cries all over — every bit
of him pleads, demands, strives. Every hair of his head is pleading
for what he wants. He not only cries with his eyes and with his
tongue, but he cries with his fingers and his hair. He thinks of
nothing but the one thing on which his little heart is set. I call
that eloquence. There is, in the Vatican, the famous group of the
Laocoon: {a} I stood one day looking at it. You remember how the
father and his sons are twisted about with venomous snakes, and they
are writhing in agony as the deadly folds enclose them. As I stood
looking at the priceless group, a gentleman said to me, “Mr.
Spurgeon, look at that eloquent great toe.” Well, yes, I had looked
at that great toe. It was like a live thing, though only marble. I
had not called it “eloquent” until he gave me the word; but certainly
it was eloquent, though silent. It spoke of anguish and deadly pain.
When a man speaks in earnest, he is eloquent even though he may be
slow of speech. His whole nature is stirred as he pleads with sinners
for the Lord Jesus; and this makes him eloquent. Oh my brothers, you
do not know what you can do until you get at it with your whole
souls. But if you happen to have the gift of fluent speech, please
use it in helping those who have believed through grace. “I do not
have the gift of speech,” one says. Well, dear brother, have you
tried? Have you tried? Many a man has great powers of speech, but he
has been too bashful to develop them. Shall I put it in plain
English? He has been too much of a coward to find out his own
capacity. If he could only have gotten rid of his fear under the
impulse of a strong affection for others, he could have spoken; and,
by degrees, he would have spoken well. We want more young men in this
church to go out and preach the gospel. What are you doing, you dumb
dogs? How will you answer for it if your Lord is robbed through your
sinful silence? All our organizations are in need of speaking men,
and of earnest, loving, Christian women, who can plead with souls. I
believe that there is much more of gift lying idle than we have ever
suspected. I charge you, place your talent in the Lord’s treasury at
once, lest its rust should witness against you.

21.
But if you do not have a great measure of giftedness, never mind about
that. I do not know if Apollos did mischief through being too gifted,
and too ready of speech. When he went to Corinth, he could speak
better than Paul; and, after a while, he weaned the fickle ones from
the apostle, to his grief. Apollos did not do this intentionally — it
was not his fault; but some of them said, “Listen to Apollos! Is he
not a splendid speaker? Did you ever hear such eloquence? Paul cannot
talk in that way.” One said, “I like Paul, for he is so deep; but yet
he is neither a polished scholar, nor an elegant speaker like
Apollos. He has never been to the college at Alexandria; he has never
been polished by Egyptian philosophy. Apollos is the man for me.” One
cried, “I am of Paul”; and another, “I am of Apollos”; and another,
“I am of Cephas”; while a few even said, “I am of Christ” — as if
Christ could lead a sect within his own church. This led to a grievous
dividing into parties and wretched following of men. When he saw it,
Paul told them they were carnal, and mere babes in Christ. Talent and
education may stand in the way of a believer, and may not help him.
But in your infirmity there is no such danger, therefore get to work
despite your weakness. If you can only stutter, go and stutter the
gospel; and it is the gospel that God will bless, not your stuttering
nor your orating. If you can only write a letter in the simplest
words about Jesus, go and do it; and the simplicity with which you
write, while it looks like a weakness, may really be a source of
strength, preparing it all the better for God to use it.

22.
If we have a measure of natural ability, whether it is great or
small, let us use it; but if we do not have that ability, we may
acquire one form of capacity in which Apollos abounded. He was
mighty in the Scriptures. Now, we can all study our Bibles. If we
believe in Jesus in our hearts we ought to have the Bible at our
finger tips; and, if so, we shall help many by our instructive talk.
The good Bible student has lips like a springing well. When the word
of God dwells in a man richly his speech drops fatness. Those who
speak Scripture sow seed; and it is living and growing seed — seed
whose harvest is salvation. It is God’s Word, not our comment on
God’s Word, that saves men. Keep on quoting God’s inspired truth,
and be inspired by it yourself, so as to explain it by your own
experience, and in that way you will help much those who have
believed through grace.

23.
But, dear friends, in addition to this, you will not do much unless
you are like Apollos, fervent in the Spirit. Notice that
twenty-fifth verse — “fervent in the spirit.” He was a burning man: a
man on fire. He burned his way by his zeal. He was not content to
speak calmly and coolly, but he threw his soul into his preaching.
That is half the battle. I do not know whether it is not three
quarters of it. “Fervent in the spirit.” If you are full of fire, and
full of life, and full of heart, you will be a blessing to others.
“How can I get warmth of heart?” one says. Live in the presence of
God. I cannot give you any other prescription. Let the Lord shine
upon you as the Sun of Righteousness, and you will be fervent: all
other methods are mere speculations, and will fail. The famous
naturalist, Buffon, once had a large number of the wise men of the
Academy of France on his grounds. They were all philosophers; and you
know what a philosopher is. If you do not know, you should meet one;
and I do not think that your appreciation of the sect will be
increased. However, these were all philosophers, great men walking in
a great man’s gardens — all great together. In the grounds there was a
glass globe, and when one of these profound philosophers touched this
glass globe on the shady side, he found that it was very, very warm,
while on the side that was exposed to the sun it was comparatively
cool. Herein was a marvellous thing. He called his brother
philosophers around him, and I picture them as they gave out their
various theories why this glass globe was hotter on the side away
from the sun than on the side which was bearing the full blaze of
noonday. One had a theory of reflection, another of refraction,
another of absorption: I cannot give you all their words, for they
were wonderful words, and wonderful theories, and they discussed, and
discussed, and discussed, until Buffon, not quite satisfied with the
philosophical conclusions which they had reached, called the
gardener, and said, “Gardener, can you tell me why this side of the
globe, away from the sun, is hotter than the other side upon which
the sun is shining?” “Yes, sir,” said the gardener, “Just now I
turned the globe around, because it was getting too hot on one side.”
This did not uphold the new philosophical theories, but it maintained
an old-fashioned doctrine — namely, that the sun gives heat. You may
depend on it that the only answer to the question why a man is
fervent in spirit is, that he keeps his heart near his Lord. You need
not enter upon any philosophical dissertations as to how to maintain
fervour and enthusiasm, and all that. That is the most fervent heart
which enjoys most of the light of God, and there is the end of the
whole matter. If you live in the light of God’s countenance, you will
be fervent; and if you turn away from him you will grow cool. May God
give us to be fervent in spirit!

24.
But now notice one more thing. Apollos greatly helped these people
because he preached Christ to them. “For he mightily convinced
the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was
Christ.” If we are going to help those who have believed in Christ,
our conversation with them must be full of Christ. Nothing will
really feed the soul except Jesus. His flesh is food indeed. His
blood is drink indeed. Everything else is froth, or wind. Reading
yesterday, in “Israel my Glory,” a book by Mr. Wilkinson, who is the
director of the Jewish mission at Mildmay, I saw a statement there
which was quite new to me. He is speaking of the Jewish passover at
the present day. Now, you know what the passover was according to the
law of Moses — how a lamb was killed, and the blood was sprinkled on
the lintel and the two side-posts, while the meat was roasted and
eaten. The Jews to this day observe the passover; but they observe it
in a way which is according to the Rabbis, and not according to
Moses. On the table there are passover cakes, lettuce, chervil, and
parsley, as the bitter herbs. This I understand, but what is this
Charoseth — a mixture of lime and mortar? And where did the egg and the
salt water come from? Moses knows nothing of eggs and mortar. What is
there, do you suppose, besides? “Oh,” you say, “the Paschal Lamb.”
No, no; they have left that out. What is there at the Jewish passover
at the present time instead of the lamb? A shank-bone! A shank-bone,
notice that — with no meat on it! Only a shank-bone! The blood is gone,
and in place of it is an egg. The lamb is gone, and instead of it is
a shank-bone. “Ah, me! How can they make void the law of God like
this?” This I said involuntarily; but very soon I remembered that I
could not blame the Jews, for they are only imitating the Christians.
Go and hear many who pretend to preach the gospel. Where is the Lamb,
the Sacrifice, to be fed on? Where is the sprinkled blood? Why, they
are ashamed to speak of “the blood.” They think the very word is
vulgar. But what do they give us? A bone! A bone! A bone that no dog
would care for — a bone of modern thought put in the place of the Lamb,
who ought to be fed on by all the living Israel of God. I thank Mr.
Wilkinson for such a simile. I smile to think of my Israelite
friends sitting down to the table with their shank-bone, and calling
it the passover, but they are quite as near the mark as my Christian
friends sitting down to their divinity, out of which the great
doctrine of the atonement has been taken, and calling it the
Christian faith. There is no food for bodies in the shank-bone, nor
any food for souls in the modern theology; but in Christ crucified
there is every help that a soul can want. Are you burdened with
sin? He bore it on the tree. Are you afraid that sin will conquer
you? You shall overcome by the blood of the Lamb. Trust in the
atoning sacrifice alone and entirely, and you shall enter into a
peace and joy which shall be the strength of your soul in future
conflicts with evil.

25.
I need not say more; but I would press upon my dear friends who know
the Lord to go “help much those who have believed through grace.” As
for those who have not yet believed in Jesus, may they now come and
trust him! The moment that you trust him you are saved. “Look to me,”
he says, “and be saved, all the ends of the earth.” Look at once!
Look and live!

“There is life in a look at the Crucified One.”

May the Lord, by his grace, constrain and enable you to give that
look, and to him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.

{a}Lacoon: The name of a legendary Trojan priest who, with his
two sons, was crushed to death by two sea-serpents (Virgil
Aeneid ii. 40-56, 199-231), used allusively, esp. with
reference to statues representing him and his sons in their
death-struggle. OED.

Jesus Christ, His Praise414 — Christ’s Humiliation And Exaltation1 What equal honour shall we bring
To thee, oh Lord our God, the Lamb
When all the notes that angels sing
Are far inferior to thy name?
2 Worthy is he that once was slain,
The Prince of Peace that groan’d and died
Worthy to rise, and live, and reign
At his Almighty Father’s side.
3 Power and dominion are his due
Who stood condemn’d at Pilate’s bar;
Wisdom belongs to Jesus too,
though he was charged with madness here.
4 All riches are his native right,
Yet he sustain’d amazing loss:
To him ascribe eternal might,
Who left his weakness on the cross.
5 Honour immortal must be paid,
Instead of scandal and of scorn:
While glory shines around his head,
And a bright crown without a thorn.
6 Blessings for ever on the Lamb,
Who bore the curse for wretched men:
Let angels sound his sacred name.
And every creature say, Amen.
Isaac Watts, 1709.

Gospel, Its Excellencies483 — The Different Success Of The Gospel1 Christ and his cross is all our theme;
The mysteries that we speak
Are scandal in the Jew’s esteem,
And folly to the Greek.
2 But souls enlighten’d from above
With joy receive the Word;
They see what wisdom, power, and love,
Shine in their dying Lord.
3 The vital savour of his name
Restores their fainting breath;
But unbelief perverts the same
To guilt, despair, and death.
4 Till God diffuse His graces down,
Like showers of heavenly rain,
In vain Apollos sows the ground,
And Paul may plant in vain.
Isaac Watts, 1709.

The Christian, Privileges, Communion with Jesus781 — Grief That Others Love Not Jesus1 Ah! reign wherever man is found,
My Spouse beloved and divine!
Then I am rich, and I abound,
When every human heart is thine.
2 A thousand sorrows pierce my soul,
To think that all are not thine own:
Ah! be adored from pole to pole!
Where is thy zeal? arise; be known!
3 All hearts are cold, in every place,
Yet earthly good with warmth pursue;
Dissolve them with a flash of grace,
Thaw these of ice, and give us new!
Jeanne Marie Guyon, 1790; tr. by William Cowper, 1801.

Spurgeon Sermons

These sermons from Charles Spurgeon are a series that is for reference and not necessarily a position of Answers in Genesis. Spurgeon did not entirely agree with six days of creation and dives into subjects that are beyond the AiG focus (e.g., Calvinism vs. Arminianism, modes of baptism, and so on).